July 24, 2008

Beginning tomorrow, and running through August 4th, Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Macmillan Audio will be offering the audio edition of Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat for free. Listeners will receive the audiobook in three easy-to-download sections, and soon after that, as an added bonus, will also receive an exclusive prepublication audio excerpt of Friedman's Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America. The book itself will be released by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on September 8th.Jeff Seroy, Senior Vice President of marketing and publicity at FSG, said the purpose of this audio giveaway is to "celebrate Friedman's enormous influence on our lives and times. And in preparation for the release of his new book, a green manifesto and a continuation in many ways of his thinking in The World Is Flat, we want to enable anyone who hasn't already read The World Is Flat to catch up with Friedman's argument and vision for the future."If you'd like to receive these free audio downloads, sign up at the following address: http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/giveaway

Related Articles

Thomas Friedman is thinking of opening up his book The World Is Flat for all to contribute. Here is a quote from the Financial Times:
"It's been suggested to me that we actually turn the book into an open-source product. Just put it up on the web like Wikipedia [the collaborative online encyclopedia] and let people add to it.

In Pursuit of Elegance author Matthew May reads around 200 books a year. That means he's read approximately 2000 books since the year 2000. Of those, he has picked five that he feels defined the last decade, writing "these 'big idea' books stand out because not only did they help us better understand the world, they gave us a new lens through which to view it.

There has been a shake up around one of the major business book awards given every year, with McKinsey & Company taking the place of Goldman Sachs as the partner of the Financial Times for the tenth year of their prestigious award. Submissions have been open since last month, and they officially announced the launch of the 2014 Business Book of the Year Award yesterday.
Also a first this year, they have announced an additional award—the Bracken Bower Prize—which "will be given to a promising young writer with the best proposal for a book about an emerging business theme.

One of the most fascinating trends to follow in business literature is the continual expansion of what a business book actually is. The parameters have widened significantly from the influential management and theory books of the 1980s. While there are still books made available each year on such practical matters as team building, developing a social media strategy, making a new hire, and sensible budgeting, there are also a great number of books that study decision-making from a neuroscience angle or theorize about how social and environmental influences affect human behavior.

We shared with you yesterday the winner of the FT/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.
Today, Financial Times has a follow-up piece asking all of the finalists what business books they like:
John Battelle (The Search) - Moneyball by Michael Lewis; "I read it early, and knew it was going to be a very big book - it had all the elements: strong characters, a great narrative driving the book, a wonderful topic - at least in the US - and the wonderful element of a counterintuitive hook that seemed, upon quick reflection, to be obvious"
Pietra Rivoli (Travels of a T-shirt in The Global Economy) - Women Workers and the Industrial Revolution by Ivy Pinchbeck; "It was written almost 75 years ago, but it is still the best work on the topic of industrialization. Unfortunately, such a book could never be written today.